The midfield - Abe

[Donatello]

It seems to me we play well against teams who also try to play relatviely good football, but we have a tendency to be bullied from time to time, by strong, aggressive midfields. Recently, Leeds and Swansea in the first half.

I'm a big fan of Wellens, he's extremely comfortable on the ball and has great vision and passing. However, whilst he is aggressive and a good tackler he's not the biggest. Playing King and Abe in there with him offers no strenght or bite. King, as good as he is at finishing, and he has won us games this year and last, needs to sort his tackling out. I have seen him go missing from games far too often this season, and for me, he lacks an ambition to tackle and win competitive headers in the middle of the park.

Of course you can accomodate one player who plays more skillfully, but it seems to me Abe suffers from exactly the same problem. The last two games I have seen were Leeds, Milwall and Swansea. To be fair, Abe was dreadful in all of them. He was a passenger in midfield. I've been told that he's had some good games this season since Sousa left, unfortunately I haven't seen any of these. He is supposed to be comfortable on the ball and a great passer. All I ever see him do is recieve the ball and give it straight back from where he got it, this would be ok, if his movement dragged players out of position to create holes, but his lack of movement creates no space and since he often plays in front of the back 2, they are then forced to simply lump it up. On top of this, he has absolutely no grit or determintation in the tackle. In fact Swansea's goal yesterday started because he was so weak in the tackle he lost out to Williams when he clearly looked odds on to win the ball, and Williams went on to feed Sinclair for his one two with Pratley.

At the moment I'm not a fan of Abe whatsoever, and I think we need an enforcer in midfield who can get a grip on the game to allow Wellens and King to be more creative.

What are people's thoughts on the midfield?

[Babylon]

It seems to me we play well against teams who also try to play relatviely good football, but we have a tendency to be bullied from time to time, by strong, aggressive midfields. Recently, Leeds and Swansea in the first half.

I'm a big fan of Wellens, he's extremely comfortable on the ball and has great vision and passing. However, whilst he is aggressive and a good tackler he's not the biggest. Playing King and Abe in there with him offers no strenght or bite. King, as good as he is at finishing, and he has won us games this year and last, needs to sort his tackling out. I have seen him go missing from games far too often this season, and for me, he lacks an ambition to tackle and win competitive headers in the middle of the park.

Of course you can accomodate one player who plays more skillfully, but it seems to me Abe suffers from exactly the same problem. The last two games I have seen were Leeds, Milwall and Swansea. To be fair, Abe was dreadful in all of them. He was a passenger in midfield. I've been told that he's had some good games this season since Sousa left, unfortunately I haven't seen any of these. He is supposed to be comfortable on the ball and a great passer. All I ever see him do is recieve the ball and give it straight back from where he got it, this would be ok, if his movement dragged players out of position to create holes, but his lack of movement creates no space and since he often plays in front of the back 2, they are then forced to simply lump it up. On top of this, he has absolutely no grit or determintation in the tackle. In fact Swansea's goal yesterday started because he was so weak in the tackle he lost out to Williams when he clearly looked odds on to win the ball, and Williams went on to feed Sinclair for his one two with Pratley.

At the moment I'm not a fan of Abe whatsoever, and I think we need an enforcer in midfield who can get a grip on the game to allow Wellens and King to be more creative.

What are people's thoughts on the midfield?

I've actually missed his recent poor games and only seen his good ones (except the first few where he played out of position and didn't have a clue what was going on). He's not been physical but he was very good at mopping things up, tracking players and being in positions where normally the ball would go to an opposition player.

Would be great to have a big unit in there that can put it about and do the mopping up.

[STUHILL]

It seems to me we play well against teams who also try to play relatviely good football, but we have a tendency to be bullied from time to time, by strong, aggressive midfields. Recently, Leeds and Swansea in the first half.

I'm a big fan of Wellens, he's extremely comfortable on the ball and has great vision and passing. However, whilst he is aggressive and a good tackler he's not the biggest. Playing King and Abe in there with him offers no strenght or bite. King, as good as he is at finishing, and he has won us games this year and last, needs to sort his tackling out. I have seen him go missing from games far too often this season, and for me, he lacks an ambition to tackle and win competitive headers in the middle of the park.

Of course you can accomodate one player who plays more skillfully, but it seems to me Abe suffers from exactly the same problem. The last two games I have seen were Leeds, Milwall and Swansea. To be fair, Abe was dreadful in all of them. He was a passenger in midfield. I've been told that he's had some good games this season since Sousa left, unfortunately I haven't seen any of these. He is supposed to be comfortable on the ball and a great passer. All I ever see him do is recieve the ball and give it straight back from where he got it, this would be ok, if his movement dragged players out of position to create holes, but his lack of movement creates no space and since he often plays in front of the back 2, they are then forced to simply lump it up. On top of this, he has absolutely no grit or determintation in the tackle. In fact Swansea's goal yesterday started because he was so weak in the tackle he lost out to Williams when he clearly looked odds on to win the ball, and Williams went on to feed Sinclair for his one two with Pratley.

At the moment I'm not a fan of Abe whatsoever, and I think we need an enforcer in midfield who can get a grip on the game to allow Wellens and King to be more creative.

What are people's thoughts on the midfield?

I agree, our midfield are skilful and hard working but all 3 are lightweight and I think it would be useful to have a strong battler in there who can push people off the ball easily and do the ugly part of the game as King and Wellens push on. Not taking anything away from Abe as he is brilliant but I think it would be useful to have a physically stronger player in the DM against the less footballing sides. That's why I thought this Bamba might fit the bill. Played there for Hibs before, has good feet, is strong and good in the air. Just a thought. Wonder if Sven is on the same wavelength

[broughtonblue]

I agree, our midfield are skilful and hard working but all 3 are lightweight and I think it would be useful to have a strong battler in there who can push people off the ball easily and do the ugly part of the game as King and Wellens push on. Not taking anything away from Abe as he is brilliant but I think it would be useful to have a physically stronger player in the DM against the less footballing sides. That's why I thought this Bamba might fit the bill. Played there for Hibs before, has good feet, is strong and good in the air. Just a thought. Wonder if Sven is on the same wavelength

Mmm, 4-1-3-2 like the sound of that if bamba fits the bill

[Leicester_Loyal]

The last two games I have seen were Leeds, Milwall and Swansea.

Just to be a ****

[Kitchandro]

Abe started his Leicester career of well and was suddenly the most popular player. Against Leeds and swansea I agree he was awful (didn't see the Millwall game).

I think he's a good player and a good tackler when he wants to be, but I agree that whilst King can get away with being lightweight, Abe needs to be much stronger. He doesn't run around nearly as much as a player in his position should either. Most Asian players (such as Ji Sung Park) are well noted for their work rate but in the last 2 home games we have been outplayed and Abe has not worked hard enough for long enough. The second half yesterday he was better but in the first half he was truly shocking.

I'm struggling to justify that he's doing his job properly when I see us being overrun in midfield by Swansea and Leeds - when they had the freedom to run at the defence and Abe was not flling the gap between our midfield and the back four like he should be. Of course he's not the only one to blame, the defenders don't close them down quick enough either and the team has looked generally demotivated and tired in some of our recent games. But we are conceding a lot of goals still and we have to try and think why that is.

[Bellend Sebastian]

For me Abe's plus points are that he covers a lot of ground, seems to have decent vision and is very good at harrying the opposition and forcing them into errors. The main area where I think he is deficient, and it's a pretty big deficiency for the role that he's playing, is that although he can put in a good challenge he seems to lose out physically. He wins the ball with a great tackle but instead of coming away with it he just gets pushed off it again. The other thing that frustrates me about him, and in fairness this probably isn't his fault, is that he hardly ever shoots, even when in decent positions

Edit: confusion between the words 'errors' and 'areas'. New Year dyslexia horror

[artursteppe]

Generally, you are right - I think we need more bite in midfield, but Yuki Abe is my first choice to play. Just because Wellens is ugly it does not mean he is strong, he is lightweight. Furthermore he rarely gets into a situation where he can make a tackle, let alone win one. Yes, Yuki did lose a number of challenges against Swansea, but he still won more than Wellens and King put together, simply because he was in positions to do it. This has been a pet bleat of mine for a year or two. I actually counted the number of tackles our midfield players won in a home match under Nigel Pearson last season - result? 2 ( in the whole game ) from four midfield players which included both King and Wellens. I only studied it because I had a feeling we rarely actually won tackles in mid field. I believe in the same match our defenders won 6 and didn't lose any. Michael Morrison actually won 4 himself. Wellens spends more time pointing and blaming others than he does trying to tackle anybody. Now before you knock me down, check it out in our next league match. Uki Abe is involved in more one to one challenges than any other player I can remember ( even Neil Lennon ). How? Because he reads the game better than any other player we have!

[Finnegan]

He isn't a playmaker, he's a ball winner and safety net and he's good at it. His work on Commons and McGugan was like watching Pontus vs Juninho.

[cc_star]

He isn't a playmaker, he's a ball winner and safety net and he's good at it. His work on Commons and McGugan was like watching Pontus vs Juninho.

Yes, this!

He is good, has the potential to do even better as long as he's not yo-yo''d out the team

I wish we'd let him take freekicks because he can certainly crack them in for Japan

[Brown Fox]

I think we should ask ourselves where partly was in the 2nd half because Yuki marked him out of the game. First half our midfield was generally overrun but we did enough to only allow them to shoot once in the 1st half. Yuki is very intelligent and I think he doesn't really shoot much purely down to understanding and confidence as he just doesn't seem to be confident in taking the shot. Hopefully as he gels with the team more and more and learns more English he'll keep getting better.

Also anyone else just want to hug him when he bows and waves at fans? Just a thought...

[Donatello]

Generally, you are right - I think we need more bite in midfield, but Yuki Abe is my first choice to play. Just because Wellens is ugly it does not mean he is strong, he is lightweight. Furthermore he rarely gets into a situation where he can make a tackle, let alone win one. Yes, Yuki did lose a number of challenges against Swansea, but he still won more than Wellens and King put together, simply because he was in positions to do it. This has been a pet bleat of mine for a year or two. I actually counted the number of tackles our midfield players won in a home match under Nigel Pearson last season - result? 2 ( in the whole game ) from four midfield players which included both King and Wellens. I only studied it because I had a feeling we rarely actually won tackles in mid field. I believe in the same match our defenders won 6 and didn't lose any. Michael Morrison actually won 4 himself. Wellens spends more time pointing and blaming others than he does trying to tackle anybody. Now before you knock me down, check it out in our next league match. Uki Abe is involved in more one to one challenges than any other player I can remember ( even Neil Lennon ). How? Because he reads the game better than any other player we have!

To say Abe is your first choice to play is just daft. Wellens' play is not ugly, he's probably the best passer of the ball we have.

I'll concede your point about other midfielders tackling, simply because I didn't count them myself, but I will point out that you counted them last season, and given the events of the past year, in the grand scheme of things it has been a long time.

Abe is not involved in more one to one challenges than anyone else, I'm not going to count tackels because I prefer actually watching the game, but the entire back four made a number of tackels individually, a lot more than Abe. Did you watch the game agains Swansea? I appreciate that is just one game but it was the worst example I have seen out of a number of similar incidents. He delays his tackle, assessing whether he is going toget hurt and often backs out, simply waves a leg in, or loses out entirely.

As I said, I can tolerate it in moderation, and I wouldn't be so bothered if the other dimensions to his game brought us something different. But for me he let's games pass him by, offering very little.

[STUHILL]

Yes, this!

He is good, has the potential to do even better as long as he's not yo-yo''d out the team

I wish we'd let him take freekicks because he can certainly crack them in for Japan

Can't see why Sven would be stopping him if he is showing it in training, which he isn't according to Sven who thinks at least 6months before Abe might be given that duty, if ever.

Not Gallaghers biggest fan any more but that's one are I think he does deliver on more often than not, his free-kicks

[Bugg]

Just to be a pedant, Abe never played against Millwall so you can't exactly say he was poor in that game,

[Corky]

A supporter near me was on his case from the first minute yesterday- it was ridiculous. Talk about over-analysing and scapegoating, particularly when he was being criticised for doing nothing wrong on some occasions.

Abe is a bit lightweight but he tries to keep things simple. Generally the midfield three along with King and Wellens do a good job for the team.

[themotivator]

i dont think abe has shined recently but he did ok yesterday. apart from their goal (which you have to give them credit for) i think he did well enough to prevent them from capitalising in the parts of the game when they had a lot of possession. not his best game, but not the worst shift i've seen from a city player all season.

bamba could possibly add a physical presence to the midfield that we dont get with the current 3

[gazfox9]

I've gotta disagree with a lot of whats been said in this thread about yuki abe. Me and my mate I watched the game with thought he was up there in the top 3 for MOTM. If you get the chance to watch the game back you should. The amount of times he broke up swansea attacks before playing a simple pass to a blue shirt I lost count of. He also got us outta the shit on several occasions when swansea broke on the counter after we'd conceded possesion high up the pitch. The amount of times he finds a good pass when under pressure, when most other players would hoof it upfield is admirable. As Yuki doesn't score anywhere near Kings ratio, and he doesn't find the killer passes like Wellens, most of what he does goes unnoticed. I personally feel he's a vital part of our starting 11, and if he hadn't played yesterday I don't think we'd have bagged the 3 points.

[Ross 'LCFC' Turner]

cant understand why everyone has been saying abe doesnt fit in or not been good enough over the past few weeks? for a start abe didnt play against millwall so saying he was 'dreadful in all of them' is wrong.

abe in my opinion has been one of the most consistant performers since becoming a first team regular, im not sure how people say hes not strong enough because all i ever see is him hustling, winning the ball in the middle of the park, hes so strong and quick and even wins almost every header which is impressive for his size. abe doesnt stop running for the full 90 minutes and is such a good team player because of they way he slots in at center back, right back, left back whenever one of the defenders burst forward. although he doesnt usually do something like wellens and play that killer ball or like andy king and pop up and score a goal his role is vitally important as he sits back and gives the other two the opportunity to go and do what they do best, something similar to mascherano.

[Stevosevic]

Played well on Saturday, no problem with him IMO.

[themotivator]

I've gotta disagree with a lot of whats been said in this thread about yuki abe. Me and my mate I watched the game with thought he was up there in the top 3 for MOTM. If you get the chance to watch the game back you should. The amount of times he broke up swansea attacks before playing a simple pass to a blue shirt I lost count of. He also got us outta the shit on several occasions when swansea broke on the counter after we'd conceded possesion high up the pitch. The amount of times he finds a good pass when under pressure, when most other players would hoof it upfield is admirable. As Yuki doesn't score anywhere near Kings ratio, and he doesn't find the killer passes like Wellens, most of what he does goes unnoticed. I personally feel he's a vital part of our starting 11, and if he hadn't played yesterday I don't think we'd have bagged the 3 points.

well observed.

[Trav Le Bleu]

He isn't a playmaker, he's a ball winner and safety net and he's good at it. His work on Commons and McGugan was like watching Pontus vs Juninho.

And THAT was a work of art. One of the best games ever in a Blue Shirt, even if it wasn't spectacular.

People need to appreciate that football isn't all 50 yard wonder passes, 30 yard net rippers and thundering tackles.

[Stevosevic]

People who don't rate footballers who play with the same style and perform the same job as Abe, are usually blind to whats required of a successful football team, expecting every player to score 20 goals, make 70 yard passes every minute and be capable of taking it round 5 players.

Abe is very effective at tracking his runner and does all the simple things perfectly allowing King and Wellens to be more creative in going forward.

P.S if the guy who sits SK3, row CC is reading this, your 90 minute Abe bashing yesterday was cringe worthy.

[cc_star]

I've gotta disagree with a lot of whats been said in this thread about yuki abe. Me and my mate I watched the game with thought he was up there in the top 3 for MOTM. If you get the chance to watch the game back you should. The amount of times he broke up swansea attacks before playing a simple pass to a blue shirt I lost count of. He also got us outta the shit on several occasions when swansea broke on the counter after we'd conceded possesion high up the pitch. The amount of times he finds a good pass when under pressure, when most other players would hoof it upfield is admirable. As Yuki doesn't score anywhere near Kings ratio, and he doesn't find the killer passes like Wellens, most of what he does goes unnoticed. I personally feel he's a vital part of our starting 11, and if he hadn't played yesterday I don't think we'd have bagged the 3 points.

I'm not going to suggest that some people above don't know football, but you do really have to know football to appreciate what a player like Abe does, and you've nailed it

Also, (to some of the people above) if you're going to criticise someone for being rubbish or below par then at least make sure they're playing, he didn't play against Millwall, which is probably the most we've been over-run for some time.

[Dylan]

I think Yuki Abe is a great player. He does his job well- winning the ball and releasing. Who could you possibly replace him with in our current squad?

[joelmurray]

Have a look on the highlights of the Hull match, watch for Abe's run to make space for Wellens to cross for Vaz's goal. He works hard in defence and can be a part of goals...I have a lot of mates who rate him as our best player!